Dealing with conning little shyster's - Your suggestions please?

Right here's the deal. Last year we undertook some website design for a company that, to be honest, looked a bit dubious. The managing director was your stereotypical Gareth Cheeseman style salesperson. A right odious little turd.

We were about to finish the job. All to their expressed satisfaction, when all communication stops. Can't get hole of the oily little twerp any more

Turns out he wound the company up (probably due to outstanding debts), the went and set another one up doing exactly the same thing. As the old comapny is now a shell with no assets, our lawyers have said there isn't much point in trying to pursue the money they owe us in the courts

So..... with the legal avenues pretty much closed, what imaginative ways could the massive come up with to reak a couple of grands worth of damage to an objectionable little scum-bag, who has clearly done this kind of thing before

Lets try to keep it legal-ish. But the funnier and more imaginative the better.

is he in a business where you can place orders and he has to buy stuff in to satusfy them. You could arrange for orders to be placed but subsequently cancelled prior to delivery and payment but where he still has liability to his suppliers?

to be honest he sounds liek someone who'll be better at this sort of thing than you and you might end up with more grief than you are having now.}

Mark it up to experience and move on. The best solution for you is to change the way you do business.

I'd look at gettign a bigger deposit up front from new customers if I were you or makign stage payments necessary ad usign a factor - you still get your money that way.

My business got stung for 2k in our first year of trading by a complete ****, who as it turned out owed in excess of £100,000 to various companies in town. The thing that really sickened me was that while we were working for him he had the nerve to tell me how he'd been out shopping for cars and houses for his daughters....... absolute f**er.

At the time I was going to check with company house for his address, then go around his house some night and put his windows in, put acid on his car etc, I never bothered in the end.

Best advice - seriously - learn from your mistake and move on. You've got a business to run and in any climate (not just one going pear shaped), you really haven't got time to waste getting hung up on something as banal as revenge.

There is some phoenix company legislation that means that directors can be held personally liable for the debts of a company if the same directors were responsible for a previous company that traded with a similar name and didn't meet its obligations to creditors.

That's only the debts of the new company rather than the old, so probably doesn't help.

We had a similar situation with a design/marketing company that ceased trading owing us money. I was overjoyed 6 months later to see a mailing from our local chamber of commerce that heralded the great success of the 'same' company. It was so nice to see the local chamber of commerce supporting local businesses...

My brother in law (carpet shop), got so pissed off with people like this that he just starting selling the debts to 'collection agencies' (read: really big men in leather jackets). He lost a few hundred quid on each one but it's better than nothing.

It's pointless trying to do anything really. As other's have suggested, he's probably done this loads of times, knows the score, and more than likely a couple of big lads with a loose interpretation of the law. Breathe deeply, understand that you're the better man, and move on. Next time the company looks dicey ask for money up front. It's what I do, and it sorts the tossers and chancers out from the legitimate businesses.